Food Additive May Prevent H7N9 From Infecting Host Cells

As China continues to battle an outbreak of avian influenza A (H7N9), a team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine are among those looking for ways to intervene and bring an end to a disease that has so far killed more than 20 percent of those it has infected. The university team, led by Michael Caffrey, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at IUC, has found a common food additive that can block a strain of the avian influenza virus from infecting healthy cells. They are now reporting this new discovery in a published paper in the online journal PLoS ONE.